1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an alarm device for informing an operator of the appropriate end-of-cooking timing of certain food items. The alarm device is generally used in a cooker for cooking food items in cooking liquid such as oil or water.
2. Description of the Related Art
In cooking apparatus such as fryer apparatus and noodle cookers for cooking food items in a cooking liquid medium, determination of the appropriate heating amount is required for desirable cooking of food items. A generally used alarm device accumulates the heating amount and informs the operator with a buzzer of the appropriate end-of-cooking timing when the accumulated value reaches a predetermined limit. For example, in a fryer apparatus, the operator presses a start pad on the alarm device to initiate the accumulation of heating amount simultaneously when food items are placed into cooking oil whose temperature is maintained in a fixed range. When the heating amount reaches a predetermined value, the buzzer tells the operator the end-of-cooking timing when the food items are to be taken out of a frypot in the fryer apparatus.
Such a conventional alarm device requires the operator to press the start pad simultaneously with placing food items into a cooking liquid. This manual operation is relatively troublesome. Moreover, when the operator forgets to press the start pad, the alarm device does not inform the operator of the appropriate timing for taking food items out of the cooking liquid. This may cause over-cooking of the food items and damage their taste and flavor.
In the conventional fryer apparatus, combustion is controlled ON and OFF to maintaining the oil temperature within a predetermined range. When food items are placed into the cooking liquid under the combustion OFF conditions, the fryer apparatus can not resume combustion immediately, but there is a certain time delay before re-start of combustion. This time lag is generally attributed to the temperature sensor which detects the drop in oil temperature below a predetermined value after some delay due to the uneven temperature distribution in cooking oil and convection of the oil in the frypot. The conventional system resumes combustion after the temperature in cooking oil around the cold food items falls undesirably, which may cause underdoing or overdoing of food items.